December 14/05 3:36 am - Burnaby Six Day (Day Two)

Posted by Editoress on 12/14/05

Burnaby SixDay - Day 2Courtesy Organizer

Two Great Nights, Two Awesome Nights of Racing, Two Capacity Crowds.

Looking up from the infield on Monday night, most racers were surprised and excited to see as many spectators in the stands as the first night. Last night they were even more excited, mostly thanks in part to the stint on City TV's Breakfast Television. Luckily the crowds were not disappointed as they were treated to some fantastic racing in the B group and a some dominating racing in the A group.

The B's started the night off with a Points Race and once again Recycled Cycles rider Daniel "show some" Harm was out collecting points. It wasn't a total runaway as no less than 10 riders collected points in this race. The final looked almost sewn up nearing the end of the race however until youth and daringness took over. Nathan MacDonald flew from the middle of the pack taking the five points available for that sprint and proceeded to lap the main field. His 25 points was just enough to edge out Daniel and young Cody Campbell in third.

Next up for this pack was the always painful Snowball. The first handful of laps saw Cody, Chris Anstee and Adrian Johnson trading off and collecting laps. Being a race with no easy laps yet no all out sprints this is most definitely a race that never lets up, however David Schneider, BC's VP of road and track, took advantage of a slight lull in the pace and slid off the front to gain valuable mid race points entrenching himself in an almost unbeatable lead. That is until Daniel broke the pack open again, caught and passed David and accumulated points after points, putting the lead out of reach.

The Unknown Distance race was next for this group and as this is an event of complete luck, with an awe lot of incredible timing ;), any rider with a bit of gambler in their blood took their chance off the front, hoping, praying, pleading for the bell to be rung. When it finally was Anselmo "drive me to Vegas" Rossiello showed his fast turn of speed and held off Masters World Champion Chris Anstee, Daniel, Andy White and Cody in that order.

The last race of the night was set aside for the B group, and why not? It wasn't like they had not raced hard or long enough over the last two nights! The Point-a-Lap was last on the schedule and as this was a 45 lap race and we only have 33 points accounted for, then I would assume there were plenty of tired legs that needed to pull out. The brave who did finish and collected laps were speedsters Laura Yoisten, and the usual crew of Anselmo, Andy, Nathan and race winner Daniel. A good hard night of racing for the Bs who are most likely looking forward to their night off tonight.

The same cannot be said for the A racers, night two of racing and four to go with no end in the pain and suffering in sight. Marsh Cooper is not a lucky man in the sense of "finding winning tickets on the sidewalk" lucky. This kid goes out and makes his own luck. With rested legs, Marsh split from the pack early and opened a huge 3/4 of a lap gap in the As Unknown Distance. As this race does not favour riders lapping the field, Marsh just maintained his lead and waited for the bell to ring. When it did, race organizer Scott Laliberte just managed to be at the front of the pack, hmmmm?, and held off the fast field for second place.

Next up was the Point-a-Lap and tired legs from two nights of hard racing were evident. Five riders lapped the pack, which was pulled, leaving the finishing five to collect all the points. Again Marsh won, with teammate Christian Meier, Washington rider Adrian Hegyvary, Calgarian Ryan McKenzie, and local boy John Perkins finishing in that order. The 150 lap Madison was last for these riders, and after a rather tame first night of slinging, Tuesday's affair was anything but. Symmetrics took an early aggressive approach to the event and quickly went on the attack, the pack shattered and racers spent the next hundred and so laps being show a textbook display of speed and precision by the two young pros.